改善空气质量的道路还很漫长

As incomes rise and priorities slowly shift from paying attention to basic needs towards ensuring a better life for the future, environmental awareness is also soaring in China.

According to governmental data, two-thirds of China's cities currently fail to meet stricter air quality standards that the government wants to phase in over the next four years to combat notoriously smoggy skies.

PM 2.5 - particles less than 2.5 micrometers in size, or about 1/30th the width of an average human hair - are believed to be a health risk as they can become lodged within the lungs, and have been linked to increased cardiovascular and respiratory diseases as well as lung cancer.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection has pledged to implement PM 2.5 readings nationwide by 2016.

Fu Qingyan, chief engineer at the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Centre says Shanghai is gradually implementing the new limit.

"Both the public and we at the Environmental Monitoring Centre, feel that the PM 10 index is no longer suitable for reflecting the current air quality status in an objective and comprehensive way. That's the reason why we need to start monitoring finer particles such as PM 2.5."

This Shanghai monitoring station has been at the forefront of a new era ever since the city pledged to be among the first 30 major urban centers to begin PM 2.5 monitoring. Around 80 more cities will join next year.

This new machine measures the smallest and most harmful and toxins, referred to as PM 2.5. It is among the first three machines already installed from the 24 that will eventually be in place over the next six months.

Long-term data released by the local government shows that overall air quality has been improving over the course of the last decade, although there's still much to do.

Most of the pollution in China comes from emissions in industrial plants or factories that burn coal; the main source of the country's energy needs. Like many other big Chinese cities, Shanghai is surrounded by a belt of factories supplying the steel, chemical, pharmaceutical and electronics industries.

Now, thanks to better monitoring, stronger arguments are taking shape with which to tackle the sources of contamination and step up the cleaning efforts.

Zhou Jun, deputy director of the Pollution Prevention and Control Unit at the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau says tackling air pollution will be a long and arduous task.

"The level of pollution is strongly related to the economic development of society. We know our country has a fast pace of development. Over the past 30 years we have advanced more than any other country was able to do over a 100-year period. If 100 years of development causes environmental degradation, in China's case, such degradation has taken place within the last 30 years. So the level of pollution has simply exploded."

Air purifiers are now the big sellers in most electronics appliance shops.

Back in the year 2000, Japanese electronics maker Sharp introduced the first domestic air purifying units in the Chinese market. According to a sales manager at Sharp, in 2011 the company experienced a 400% increase in the sales volume in the Shanghai market alone.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.